Intercepting German Communications

We were attached to the Canadian Corp of Signals and we supplied all the wires and the communications to all the different brigades as required for reinforcements. I went with the Canadian Corp right from, my first posting was to, I believe Camden, Lee Abby, I believe, and from there we went forward. Our training was complete and we went out on observation posts to receive signals. I was on a post where we did nothing but receive German signals in code and our duty was to copy everything that we heard and give it to a runner and he would take it back to have it decoded. We had two or three men usually on a station and we had to carry 6 volt batteries and other equipment for antennas and they would be placed in the ground with long steel spikes for communication and they were effective for possibly a mile and that was the savior for a lot of over ground wiring which was being torn up by shells.

Mr. Spear discusses his arrival in France, and being sent to an outpost, a forward position used to intercept German signal traffic. Here he would copy what he heard and pass it to a runner, who would deliver it to Headquarters.

Thomas Spear

Thomas Spear was born on October 22, 1896 in Alberta. His father was Reverend David Spear, a pioneer missionary in the Northwest Territories. As a youngster, Thomas often accompanied his father travelling in winter by horse and sleigh. When the First World War started, Mr. Spear was living in Emerson, Manitoba working for the Canadian Pacific Railroad as a telegraph operator. In January 1916 he enlisted in the Canadian Signal Corps and in April of that year sailed aboard The Baltic to England. Before heading to the battlefields of France, Mr. Spear was given additional training. One of the things he had to learn was the Continental Code or semaphore, which had a number of different characters from Morse Code. Mr. Spear was one of the first to learn wireless communication and eventually manned a wireless truck near the front.